Healthcare Without Insurance

The fear of "socializing" healthcare is a real hitch to getting anything passed
in Congress, and in convincing the America people that it isn't going to ruin
healthcare altogether.

The choices seem to be one kind of insurance or another:

employer-based insurance

government controlled insurance

But... there is another choice.
We can set up an entirely new medical structure at a drastically reduced cost.

Privacy
There is nothing more private in our lives than our personal healthcare. When
we allow a doctor to examine us, it is a relationship of trust... and we hope
that whatever is recorded about our state of wellness... and about our body
parts... and about our psychological wellness... will remain solely with our
doctor and his/her trusted medical assistants.

With insurance schemes, your state of health is NEVER just between you and
your doctor. If you purchase insurance through an employer, those enrollment
forms require pre-existing conditions to be itemized. These forms pass through
your company's offices.

In fact, in ANY insurance scheme, one will surrender one's right to privacy... because
claims must be handled by office staff at the insurance companies. And, if your
private information is in a computer database it becomes accessible to anyone
with a desire to find it. Anyone in the "Workman's Compensation" legal system... will
find their medical records intruded upon, as well.

The intrusion goes further. Insurance companies have the power to control
what healthcare you can receive, as well as how much your doctor will be paid
for his services. They can exclude or include coverage based on their own costs,
and if they are included in a universal coverage system, they will become even
more intrusive. There is the potential to establish a system of complete behavior
control... under the premise of "health impacts." They would have the "right" to
know every behavior you practice... because of its healthcare implications.

And your coverage may well be minimal. Insurance policies are
more and more "dummy" policies... you will end up paying a huge chunk of the
cost of your healthcare tests and treatments, and not know what your portion
of the bill is... until it is too late.

The present system is completely dysfunctional.

The high cost of a doctor's liability insurance has been caused, in part, by the lack
of oversight of the medical profession... especially in ensuring that genuinely bad
doctors are not allowed to continue practicing medicine. We know how lax the system
is when we hear a story about a man who stole a doctor's identity and practiced
medicine for years...even on FBI agents.

The process of medical training is insane. Doctors must intern in hospitals in a
fashion that can only be described as tortuous...
working shifts of long hours with no sleep. More students are seeking to get
nurses training than there are classes available to train them in. Thus, we have a
real shortage of nurses and the practicing nurses suffer under extreme conditions.

Small clinics and hospitals have been closing in rural areas because they have no
funding. Many rural residents cannot afford insurance, and so they have gone without
healthcare.

I call this system: A medical eco-system
It will be initiated by the government with guaranteed loans to form clinics. The
guidelines would establish a model of a full-functioning clinic, and coordinate
the initial establishing of this system. Once established, the clinics would function
on their own.

It will provide healthcare for every person in the country at $50.00 a month.
Yes, that's correct.
(Check the math below). And the government's only
monitary involvement will be to guarantee enrollment for poverty-level persons and
those who do not enroll on their own.

Enrolling in a clinic IS a person's health insurance.

They will have their choice as to what clinic that might be and be free to change
as they choose.

This eco-system will eliminate medicare, medicaid, VA, and other medical programs.
Veterans Hospitals will be a specialized clinic available within the system... and paid
for by the Dept. of Defense from their total budget... but a veterans's basic healthcare
will be through a family clinic.

The system will monitor itself with a Medical Oversight Board working with
a State Doctor Referendum (composed of all licensed medical doctors in each state).
The Oversight Board will monitor the expenses and practices of all hospitals
and clinics, including nursing homes. The Referendum will set salary levels for
all medical practitioners and establish standards for all aspects of their own medical
community.

This "eco-system" begins with the formation of family clinics. Each clinic will
have the necessary equipment to provide the basic standards of treatments.
This includes the more common medical equipment such as x-rays, heart monitors, sonar,
and small laboratories... that allow the best and quickest diagnosis of a person's
health... on site.

Doctors will form into groups (choosing their own associates) in order to offer
complementary expertise in various fields... general practice, pediatrics, internal
medicine, diagnostician, geriatrics, etc. Doctors may bring patients from a former
practice, or they can have enrollment meetings where clients can meet the doctors.

The clinic will associate itself with dentists and eye doctors,
possibly even within
the clinic. Specialists and surgeons with greater expertise will work out of other
specialized clinics or hospitals. Each family clinic would pay fees into a fund from
which hospitals and specialized clinics would draw to pay for their expenses.

There will be an on-site pharmacy at the clinic. Pharmaceuticals will be
deductible to the clinic as a business expense, as they are a required
tool of this profession... just like cotton swabs and x-ray machines are
tools. Thus, medicine would be included in the service provided by the clinic.

Medicines will be purchased in bulk according to the needs of the clients, and
dispensed at the clinic. This enables doctors to personally dispense needed
medicines at the time of examination... and will avoid any confusion in filling
the proper medications. No one will be able to purchase duplicate medications
to abuse or illegally sell them.

These family clinics will be open 24 hrs a day, 365 days a year... to attend to
emergencies
and pharmaceutical needs... and to serve working families. Doctors will rotate shifts,
or hire interns when needed, to work part-time.

To eliminate the high cost of liability insurance...
The doctors of the clinic will have a daily meeting, discussing problem diagnoses and
other liability risks. Any problem diagnosis will get a second opinion and as a clinic
the doctors will decide a plan of treatment.

Each clinic can set standards that can
reduce the risks of their practice, and negotiate with insurance companies. The liability
insurance would be paid by the clinic... as a group policy... encouraging all the
doctors to protect their clinic as a group from causes of action against them.

Management of the clinic
Enrollment fees are paid to the clinic. From these fees all salaries are paid, as well as
the cost of liability insurance, repayment of equipment loans, and other expenses. Each
doctor will have a salary that is set by the doctor Referendum for their personal
level of expertise and experience. Doctors who relocate to needy regions of a state
will be paid bonus salaries.

There will be an office manager... allowing doctors to practice medicine rather
than try to function as a business owner. They will have no overhead for a medical
practice. The clinic will function as a whole.

Specialized and hospital care
A portion of the enrollment fees to the clinic will be put into a master fund
which will be used to pay for specialists, hospital care, surgeries, and other extended
services. The doctor and the patient will chose any specialist in the country.

Nursing homes will draw their salaries from this fund and be closely associated
with
a nearby clinic. Nursing homes will become non-profit entities. The building and
facilities will be owned by the state and maintained by the state, but salaries and
all other expenses will come from the master fund.

Email consultations
The ability to have email contact with a nurse or a doctor will filter out problems
that can be handled without a real-time examination and reduce the load on the
doctors. Email will also allow a doctor to monitor new medications with patients if
necessary... resulting in better care all around with less effort. These emails can
be monitored 24/7 by the medical staff at the clinic.

Medical records
All of a clients' medical records will be in one central place, where all doctors
can refer to them, and refer as well to other family charts to help diagnose difficult
cases. These can be transferred to a USB memory card for patients to take
with them... for travel or to treatment in a hospital. The records would be
locked with a password that only the doctors will have.

Health maintenance
The clinic's nutritionist would work alongside the doctors and the pharmacist to
spot signs of nutritional needs as well as put together a newsletter for all patients
to inform them about proper nutritional practices. This nutritionist would serve as
an informational director for the clinic... to enhance the maintenance of health of
all the enrolled patients.

The model used below is for a base of 12 doctors in a clinic that is open 24/7,
365 days a year... in varying shifts. In this model, the clinic can provide services
for 3 patients per hour for each doctor. (see numbers below) This totals 1404
patient visits per week or 73,008 patient visits per year.

If each enrolled patient visited the clinic an average of 3 times a year, that
would divide this number into thirds. OR... 24,336 patients able to be
enrolled in each clinic. Of course, in times of heavy patient load, the clinic can
call medical students to assist them.

Round the number of enrollees to 25,000. With each enrollee paying $50. a month
or $600. a year, the total money taken in would be $15,000,000. (15 million dollars).
The total that would go into the master fund would be $11,000,000. (11 million dollars)